No. 1185, March 23, 2023

In Court to Block Logging in Grizzly Habitat

The Center for Biological Diversity and allies just asked a federal court to stop logging and road construction in the home of imperiled Cabinet-Yaak grizzly bears in Montana’s Kootenai National Forest.

There are only 42 grizzlies left in this small, isolated population, and four of them — including a mother with cubs — live in the site of a planned timber sale. Bears need large areas of road-free forest to survive. But this May the U.S. Forest Service wants to start logging and building roads there, destroying trees that provide the bears’ spring food — without studying the project’s harms.

That’s illegal. So we stepped in to block the logging and protect the grizzlies.

“This habitat is critical for female grizzlies, who need to replace energy stores they burned off during months of hibernation,” said Center lawyer Kristine Akland. “These vulnerable bears can’t afford to be displaced by logging any time of the year, and especially not in the spring.”

Help us fight for grizzlies and other wildlife with a gift to our Saving Life on Earth Fund.

Revive Extinct Species With Dungeons & Dragons

Join our Saving Life on Earth webinar today at 4 p.m. PT/ 7 p.m. ET to learn about an exciting new project to bring extinct species back to life — as monsters in the popular roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons.

The event will feature Senior Scientist Tierra Curry and special guest Lucas Zellers, creator of The Book of Extinction, an upcoming D&D “monster manual,” and the companion podcast Making a Monster: Extinction.

It’s free, but registration is required — so sign up and then check your email for a link.

Sunflower Sea Star and Mussels Will Get Help

Three aquatic species were proposed for protection this week thanks to Center work — two freshwater mussels in the South and sunflower sea stars off the Pacific Coast.

The mussels, Texas heelsplitters and Louisiana pigtoes, will also get 1,800 river miles as critical habitat. They’re key to keeping waters clean but are threatened by pollution of those waters, declining flows, and climate change.

Sunflower sea stars have lost 90% of their Pacific population in 10 years to the gruesome and disfiguring sea star wasting disease. These beautiful marine animals have up to 24 arms, can be a meter wide, and come in a variety of bright colors. Voracious predators, they help keep coastal kelp forests healthy by eating sea urchins.

New Count Shows Monarchs Are Still in Danger

The 2023 count of eastern monarch butterflies, who spend the winter in Mexico, shows a 22% drop since just last year. Now the population is 64% below the minimum threshold necessary for them to evade the danger of extinction. Western monarchs, who overwinter in California, are also in trouble — after a comeback, half of them died in the state’s recent winter storms.

After we petitioned to protect monarchs under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service put them on the waiting list. But that’s not good enough. Take action to help protect these iconic insects now.

And check out this powerful animation of western monarchs’ decline, by the Center’s Dipika Kadaba, on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube.

Suit Launched to Save Gopher Tortoises

The Center and allies filed notice Wednesday that we’ll sue the Fish and Wildlife Service to win protection for the Southeast’s precious gopher tortoises. The Service denied them protection in 2022 even though, by its own admission, nearly three-quarters of their remaining populations will disappear by 2100.

“Without Endangered Species Act protection, urban sprawl will keep driving gopher tortoises closer to extinction,” said Elise Bennett, the Center’s Florida director. “That’s bad news for hundreds of other species who rely on them, too, from indigo snakes to gopher tortoise shell moths.”

Keep an eye on your inbox tomorrow for a chance to take action and help us save these rare reptiles.

Statement of Support for Transgender Rights

The rights of transgender people in the United States are under coordinated attack. This year almost 500 anti-trans bills have been introduced in state legislatures across the country — and it’s not even April.

The goal of this attack is widespread criminalization of trans lives. Anti-trans bills seek to deny or limit access to gender-affirming healthcare, define gender as a male-female binary, restrict access to spaces and experiences based on sex assigned at birth, ban drag, and more.

In the face of this frightening attack on civil liberties, we want to make our position clear. The Center champions the right of transgender people to be themselves, in all their diversity, and to receive the same rights and freedoms as everyone else.

Learn more from Human Rights Campaign.

Legal Paper Suggests: Try Big Oil for Homicide

A recent law review article proposes a new legal strategy to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for climate change: Try them for homicide.

The approach would be revolutionary, but not without precedent, the authors argue — the utility PG&E was charged with manslaughter over its part in 2018’s deadly Camp Fire, and BP got the same charge over 2010’s Deepwater Horizon disaster.

“The case is compelling that fossil fuel companies’ actions meet the legal definition of homicide,” the Center’s Kassie Siegel told The Guardian. “I think it’s absolutely brilliant.”

Revelator: How PFAS Hurt Wildlife

Researchers have found per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, aka PFAS, in the bodies of wild animals everywhere, from polar bears to sea turtles. Now scientists are beginning to understand the health effects of these dangerous compounds, dubbed “forever chemicals” because they linger in the environment for thousands of years.

Learn more in The Revelator and sign up for the e-newsletter bringing you each week’s best environmental articles and essays. 

That’s Wild: Mr. Pickles, the Elderly Tortoise Dad

He’s kind of a big dill.

A 90-year-old radiated tortoise named Mr. Pickles is thought to be the most genetically valuable member of his species and key to staving off its extinction in Madagascar.

Tortoises are famous for taking their time, as Mr. Pickles can attest. He’s been coupled up with 53-year-old Mrs. Pickles since 1996, and he just became a dad for the first time in his very long life. Three healthy babes — named Dill, Gherkin and Jalapeño — just hatched this week. The Pickles are members of a rare species that’s almost extinct in the wild, mainly because of the black-market pet trade. On top of that, true to form, radiated tortoises are slow to reproduce.   

The three hatchlings each have unique coloration: Gherkin has a white dot in the center of his shell, while Jalapeño is the darkest and Dill the lightest.

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Photo credits: Grizzly bear by Stephen Legault; The Book of Extinction graphic; sunflower sea star courtesy NPS; monarch animation by Dipika Kadaba/Center for Biological Diversity; gopher tortoise by Kaldari/Flickr; transgender rights rally by Tom Wolf/Flickr; Deepwater Horizon disaster courtesy USCG; polar bear by Ronald Woan/Flickr; Mr. Pickles and hatchlings by Jackelin Reyna/Houston Zoo.

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